CITY OF Liverpool swimmer Francesca Halsall produced a gutsy display to clinch relay gold for Britain at the European Championships in Budapest.

The 16-year-old was part of the women's 4x100m Medley quartet including Mel Marshall, Terri Dunning and Kirsty Balfour who came home in a new British record time of 4:02.24.

They smashed three seconds off the previous British best in an exciting race which saw Halsall go head to head with German world record holder Britta Steffen on the final leg.

"I saw her coming up on me and I thought I can't let anyone past me," said Halsall.

"It was so hard over the last 50m but I managed to hold on and I'm thrilled to get the gold."

European record holders Germany touched just a tenth of a second behind Britain in 4:02.35 and France collected bronze in 4:03.64.

A late medal flourish boosted Britain's tally to 13 - the largest number ever won by the squad at the European Championships.

With the third largest number of medals won at the event -behind Italy and France who claimed 15 medals apiece - and the greatest number of points scored - a total of 698 compared to France's 641 - Britain were presented with the championship trophy at the closing ceremony.

"What a fantastic end to a great meet," said head coach Ian Turner.

"We've brought a large group of swimmers and coaches and they have all benefited from this experience.